From the Herald Sun
Reported by Craig Hutchison
Full article Click here

AN off-the-ball incident involving St Kilda star Matt Maguire and which left a player in hospital with neck injuries has been investigated by the VFL. The burly Saint, playing for Sandringham, allegedly slung Frankston rover Clinton Proctor to the ground.

SANDRINGHAM is on the verge of missing the finals for the first time since
2001, but skipper Peter Summers has implored his side to keep the faith.

With just three games before finals, time is fast running out for the
ninth-placed Zebras, who are a win behind eight-placed Northern Bullants and
equal on 28 points with 10th-placed Geelong.

Sandringham travels to Coburg City Oval to face the seventh-placed Tigers
today, before finishing a tough season away to sixth-placed Frankston and a
potentially season-defining Round 20 clash at home with ladder leader North
Ballarat.

The Zebras squandered a golden opportunity to move into the top eight last
Sunday when they lost to Geelong by 11 points at Trevor Barker Oval, and Summers
knows time is ticking.

"This week is make or break for us," said Summers, 24, who spent
the pre-season with Sandy's AFL affiliate Melbourne. "It's huge. We have to
win every game from here on in."

ST KILDA will begin a new five-year VFL alignment with Sandringham effective
at the end of season 2008, ending an eight-season agreement with the Casey
Scorpions.

St Kilda chief executive Archie Fraser said that the proximity of Sandringham
Football Club to St Kilda's heartland in the bayside , and Melbourne Football
Club's potential move to the City of Casey, were the catalysts for talks between
the two clubs.

"Obviously Sandringham Football Club lies in the heartland of our supporter
base within the bayside community, and has strong historical and sentimental
links through the Trevor Barker Oval," Fraser said.

SANDRINGHAM go into next week\'s representative-match break in third place, having climbed two rungs on the VFL ladder with yesterday\'s 45-point defeat of the Northern Bullants at Trevor Barker Beach Oval.

The Bullants led at the first change after a scrappy opening stanza, with both teams turning the ball over by hand in close quarters. But the Zebras emerged as a much more polished outfit after quarter-time with Ezra Poyas, Chris Johnson and Lynden Dunn providing plenty of run off half-back, delivering repeatedly to Melbourne gun Colin Sylvia, who was a busy small forward.

Goal machine Nick Sautner kicked seven but was hardly in sparkling form with young defender Mark Austin\'s undisciplined play gifting him three goals from 50-metre penalties.

The massive win is the second thumping the Zebras have dished out in as many weeks and leaves the Bombers with only one win from five matches.

A strong bay breeze played havoc, making it difficult for both sides to score at the northern end of the ground. Sandringham managed only four goals at that end but kicked 20 at the other end.

Zebras coach Andy Lovell was pleased with the club's performance. "Last week I thought we played really well for two quarters, (today) we played really well for three," he said yesterday. "We were really team-focused and everyone played their part. In the second quarter we didn't play the conditions too well.

Last Friday Williams took a full-time job as development coach at Melbourne Football Club. It's an exciting opportunity for the 43-year-old, who has ambitions to be an AFL senior coach.

"My ambitions are to hopefully become a senior coach if I can, so this was a step forward in that regard," he said. "I went for the senior job last year at Melbourne and they basically said to me if I want to move forward I've got to do some assistant coaching and go from there."

Williams' association with Sandringham was filled with success and he will always be known as a club legend. A former Carlton and Footscray utility, Williams played in the Zebras' 1992 flag. A decade later, in October, 2003, he was appointed coach of the club, and he made a breathtaking entrance, guiding the Zebras to the 2004 premiership, followed by the '05 and '06 flags.

This year, Sandringham finished on top of the ladder but bowed out of the finals in the semis.

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